Hypothetical Rain
by mindovermatter7
Summary: Hypothetical situations and rain abound! Brennan is mad at Booth, but why? And will they both own up to themselves? BB of course, with slight language and fluff. Enjoy and R & R!


**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters or background (mostly) in this story. Only the plot is mine. But Valentine's Day is coming up, and, while I hate the holiday, it would be much more bearable if I had a Special Agent Seeley Booth in a tight fitting tux with chocolates on my doorstep. Can anyone make that happen?

**A/N: **My first Bones fic, and the result of much venting and niggling plot bunnies. However, I am an avid Bones fan and hate waiting a whole week or more for each episode. Sheer torture, I tell you.

As she walked down towards the cemetery, the rain began to gently fall, mirroring her mood perfectly.

She was Dr. Temperance Brennan. She had a doctorate in Forensic Anthropology and worked at one of the most prestigious institutes in the country. She had written several books and helped the FBI solve some of their toughest cases.

She wasn't dumb.

And sure she wasn't the most socially adept person there was, but she had common sense. Didn't she? She wasn't so sure anymore.

As she reached her destination, it had begun to rain earnestly. As lightning streaked across the sky, the wind teased little tendrils of her hair and thunder rumbled in the distance.

She squatted beside her mother's grave. She knew that her mother was lying 6 feet down in her coffin, decomposing, and that she couldn't hear her, but it felt good to talk to someone. Someone who wouldn't judge her, or look for double meanings in her words. Someone who would just, listen.

"Hi Mom. I brought you flowers. Baby's Breath and Everlasting, your favorites." Tempe sat there for a moment, struggling with how to begin.

_I'll never let you see  
The way my broken heart is hurting me  
I've got my pride and I know how to hide  
All my sorrow and pain_

"Mom…I…I don't know what to do. I've never felt this way about anyone. How did I let him get through? I built up the defenses so no one could do this. So I wouldn't have to feel. Because emotions are irrational. They only cause pain and suffering and grief. And now that the last wall has been felled, he's with …_her_." She spat out the last word in contempt.

Let me take a brief pause to inform you specifically who the him and her are. The him is Special Agent Seeley Booth. Her mega-sexy-macho-charismatic-and-did-we-mention-sexy partner (Angela's words, not hers) with an ego the size of Nova Scotia. The her would be her newly anointed boss, Dr. Camille Saroyan, whom she only slightly disliked before. Now that dislike had grown into loathing and hatred.

Get it? Good. On with the plot.

_I'll do my crying in the rain_

As Tempe thought of this, a lone tear streaked down her face, soon to be joined by its compatriots.

_If I wait for stormy skies  
You won't know the rain from the tears in my eyes_

"I'm not crying Mom. It's just the rain." She could hear her mother in her head now. "Who are you trying to convince? You or me?"

"It's just that, I love him! There I said it. But he'll never feel the same way. He's with her. Even though they're so wrong for each other. But he's to blind to see that. He's just another shallow man who only looks at appearances." At this, Tempe deflated. "He's just like all the others." She leaned against her mother's headstone, and, for the first time since she found out that her mother was dead, she cried.

_  
You'll never know that I still love you so  
Though the heartaches remain  
I'll do my crying in the rain_

Seeley Booth had gone over to her apartment to tell her the news, and maybe convince her to go out for some Thai food with him. But when he knocked and looked in, she didn't appear to be home.

He then decided, instead of standing in the rain that was beginning to descend, he might as well get a bit of exercise, and unknowingly headed in the same direction his partner had headed not minutes before.

As he was passing the cemetery, he decided to go in and say hello to Tempe's mother. She didn't know he did this of course. If she did, she'd laugh at him for getting into society's superstitions or something like that.

The truth is, he liked talking to her mother. Usually he asked for advice on how to deal with her daughter, but lately, he had been asking a harder question. Was he doing the right thing?

He had finally figured out the answer on his own. That had been what he was coming to tell Bones. That he had finally broken up with Cam, like he should have done months ago.

He had been looking for a replacement for what he couldn't have again. He had thought maybe he could find a Tempe in Cam, but if truth be told, Cam was boring. She wouldn't argue with him, banter with him, actually talk with him. She was shallower than the puddles on the sidewalk. He couldn't believe it had taken him so long to see it.

As he neared Mrs. Brennan's grave, he realized someone else had had the same idea. There she was, deep in conversation, albeit a one-sided one, but a conversation none the less, with her lost mother. Instead of interrupting, he sat down at the base of tree not too far away and waited for her to finish.

Continuing his earlier thought process, he realized that was what he had been trying to do with all his past relationships. Trying to find another Bones. He'd date a girl because their hair looked the same, or their eyes, or their passion. But it was time for him to face reality. There was and would always be only one Temperance Brennan.

As he sat there in contemplation, the wind picked up a wisp of her conversation.

"Why," she sobbed. "Why him, Mom? Anybody but him. I could deal with anybody but him."

He wondered who this him was, and vowed he would have to find him and acquaint his foot with this other man's ass. How dare someone make her feel this way. And then he heard something that made him rethink that.

"Damn you Seeley Booth," she half whispered bitterly.

For a second he sat there, frozen. Then he got up and softly walked towards her. "Tempe…"

As she heard his voice, her red eyes widened and she jumped up from her vulnerable position and did the only thing her mind could think of: she ran.

_Raindrops falling from heaven  
Could never take away my misery  
But since we're not together_

She laughed bitterly, remembering what her mother had used to tell her when it rain, that the raindrops were the angels, crying for someone. Well, even though she knew they didn't exist, she knew they were crying for her.

_I pray for stormy weather  
To hide these tears I hope you'll never see_

She mentally berated herself as she ran with no particular destination in mind, for letting him see her cry. She didn't cry. Crying was showing emotion and showing emotion was irrational and pathetic.

"Man she can run," he thought. He was internally scolding himself for scaring her off like that. But underneath all of that, his head was full of questions. "Why was she crying? What was she crying about? How long has she been out in this rain? And why did she say what she did?"

Finally, she could run no more. Her lungs were burning as the last of her adrenaline rush left her. As she fought for air, she looked around to see where she had ended up. "It's no wonder I'm out of breath," she thought. "I ran 6 blocks at top speed." She looked around a bit more, and upon discovering a bench, she went and sat down.

Once she had caught her breath, it dawned upon her why she was running in the first place. "I hope he didn't chase after me. Oh, who am I kidding, he's Booth, Mr. Alpha Male himself. Of course he came after me."

And true to her prediction, just moments later, there came Booth, looking extremely winded and worried.

_  
Someday when my crying's done  
I'm gonna wear a smile and walk in the sun  
I may be a fool  
But till then, darling, you'll never see me complain  
I'll do my crying in the rain_

As soon as she registered him approaching, her stony façade was back in place. When he got closer to her, however, she noticed that he looked, for lack of a better term, pissed.

"What the hell Bones," he bellowed. "Why did you run from me like that? I just wanted to talk! And what were you crying about?" At the last question, his voice melted from fury to fear.

_I'll do my crying in the rain  
I'll do my crying in the rain_

"I didn't realize it was you Booth. Usually when people sneak up on other people like that, they mean to attack," she said, racking her brain for more plausible excuses in reply to his other questions. "And how absurd, to think I was crying. I don't cry. You must have just seen the rain flowing down my face and assumed it was tears."

He raised his eyebrows at her, not believing it for one second. "Oh, and what had you so upset that you came out in this weather to talk to your mother?" Ha! Let's see her talk her way out of this one! He knew she only came and talked to her mother when she was really troubled.

Momentarily, he thought he saw her face contort into worry, but then it was gone, and her stone was in place once more. "I wasn't upset. I merely realized I hadn't talked to her for a while and it started to rain in the middle of our conversation. It's not raining all that hard anyway." As she said this, thunder crashed above them.

He ran a hand through his soaked hair, frustrated. "Oh, so you say 'Damn you Seeley!' all the time, for no particular reason then?"

That got her and she frowned at him. "Go away. You wouldn't understand."

"No, I'm not leaving until I get to the bottom of this. And you're right, I wouldn't understand. So explain it to me. And simply, please. Remember, you're in the presence of a moron." He grinned slightly.

She rolled her eyes, wondering how to go about this. Finally, she gave up and let her subconscious take over. "Okay, so let's say, hypothetically, there's this person you like, maybe even love, but you know they don't feel the same way, and even if they did, they were with someone else.. What do you do? Do you tell them and ruin everybody's happiness by getting rejected, then go on and act as nothing happened. Or do you keep it to yourself, living each day as a lie?"

Fortunately for Seeley, he wasn't as much as a moron as he seemed, and he caught on to what she was implying right away. "But what if this person broke up with who they were seeing, and became available? What would you do then, hypothetically?"

As she heard this, her eyes got wide and she looked up at him. "You broke up with her," she asked, completely forgetting the hypothetical situation at hand.

"I did," he said, placing his large, rough hand over her small, smooth one. She jerked at his touch but didn't move away. **Slow and steady, Booth, you don't want to spook her.**

"But why?"

"She wasn't you," he said simply.

"I don't understand."

"Every time I date someone, it's because something about them reminds me of you. Their hair, their eyes, their laugh. I finally realized I can't replace you. And I know we're partners and have this whole other relationship in our jobs, but we're not at our jobs right now. So you know what? I'm going to go out on a limb."

She stared at him dumbly, her mouth slightly open, and her eyes large with fear and confusion.

"Tempe, I have never met anyone like you in my entire life. You're so fiercely independent, yet so vulnerable and naïve, though you never let most people see it. But you let me see it, and that makes me want to protect you even more, no matter how much you protest. Little by little, you've let me see the real you, and now I'm letting my gambling side out and taking a chance. You are the most amazing woman I have ever met. You're smart, funny, passionate, dedicated, loyal, caring, honest, and sensitive. You put your everything into everything. And I want to spend the rest of my life learning about you and protecting you. I love you Temperance Brennan. And that will never change."

_I'll do my crying in the rain_

Finally, the dam she had been holding together fell apart and she began to cry. Not delicate little sniffles either. Nope, she was full out sobbing, and the rain fell to match.

**Shit, now you've made her cry. Nice going Booth.**

He scooted closer to her and pulled her into his chest, holding her tightly and soothingly rubbing up and down her spine.

Finally, her sobs subsided some and she pulled away from him. He missed the warmth of her against his chest, but the ball was in her court now. He looked at her hopefully.

She sighed. Where was that Irish courage when she needed it? Oh well.

"Booth, this is all very new to me. I just recently realized how I felt about you. And you know how I feel about marriage, but…"

"But what?"

"I think maybe, we could give a relationship a try. I want to take it slow though, and see where it goes."

"I'd do anything for you. You should know that." He then proceeded to pull her to him once again, but this time, she wrapped her arms around his middle willingly, and he held her possessively.

How long they stayed like that, they really didn't know for sure. But when he finally looked up, the stars were starting to peek out from between the tree branches.

He kissed the top of her head. "I love you Tempe."

"I love you too Seeley."

With that, they walked hand in hand towards the future.

And they all lived happily ever after. Hypothetically, of course.

So??? What say you? Did I get the characterization right? Should I make it a series? I really don't buy into the whole 'huge kiss and marriage deal right away' gig. A: She points out several times she doesn't believe in marriage, and she's very cautious in relationships. While it may be what Mr. Sexy Seeley (cute name, don't you think?) wants, he'll do whatever she wants him to at this point. The poor lovesick puppy.

Sorry if there are any horendous sp/g mistakes. I don't have a beta yet. Any voluteers? Someone who could beta both my Bones and HP fics would be loved forever and ever.

Oh, and the song is Crying in the Rain by Aha. I don't it either. WAH!

So anyway, reviews, comments, flames, suggestions all greatly appreciated. Hit the little button. Make my day!


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